Raw Material

Women artists are often compared to one another but not to their male contemporaries. Learn how Mary Cassatt became one of the most important Impressionist painters of—and ahead of—her time by using the nineteenth-century Paris Opera House as an unlikely backdrop for feminist commentary.

This episode is produced and hosted by Tamar Avishai © The Lonely Palette 2017. More episodes at http://www.thelonelypalette.com/.

Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material's "summer mixtape," from SFMOMA.

Music used in this this track: Klymaxx “Meeting In The Ladies Room.” Remix by Bernadette Cooper.

“There is something cartoonish about life in California… something out of proportion, fantastical, even a little absurd.” End this season’s road trip back in the Bay Area, and explore the Emeryville mudflats, where artists upended the monumental, high-cost model of the Land Art movement with whimsical, communal, ephemeral sculptures. Play a road trip game that will broaden your concept of Land Art-- and make traffic more bearable.

Artists featured in this episode: Joey Enos, Everett Turner, Gary Knox Bennett, Penny Daimler, John McCracken

Correction for this episode: The woman who took photographs of the CCAC project was Penny Dhaemers.

“It looks crazy, surreal, like a mirage or magic. You want to walk towards that, don’t you?” Join hosts Jessica Placzek and Maddie Gobbo as they continue their West Coast road trip with a visit to the “happiest place on Earth”: Disneyland. Explore the designs and decisions that go into creating the seductive simulation of Walt Disney’s amusement parks and their utopian visions of the American landscape.

Artist featured in this episode: Kim Irvine

“Great leaders in all ages have sought the desert and heard its voice.” Land artists such as Michael Heizer and Robert Smithson found inspiration in the desert, but they were not the only—or the first—to do so. Hear three artists’ reflections on our relationship to the Great Basin and the art it has provoked.

Artists featured in this episode: Katie Peterson, Young Suh, Melissa Melero-Moose

“If that had been men, doing that for a day, it would have been famous. Everyone would have known about it. But since it was women . . . it’s just gone.” Encounter some of the historically overlooked women of the Land art movement, who often worked in stark opposition to the “plundering of the earth” approach of their male contemporaries. Then leave the macho art world in the dust with a fictional exercise in mediation.

Artists featured in this episode: Judy Chicago, Nancy Holt, Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Image: Judy Chicago, "Purple Atmosphere #4" (1969). Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery.

“Earth turns to gold in the hands of the wise.” Meet visionaries who work with and against the landscape to yield something fruitful, shop the local farmers market, and then explore ways to beat the heat and build a home. Consider how far you would go to survive in a hostile landscape with a speculative story that envisions the fate of farming in a warming world.

Artist featured in this episode: Baldassare Forestiere

“As long as you’re going to make sculpture, why not make one that competes with a 747, or the Empire State Building, or the Golden Gate Bridge?” Discover artists who did just that by creating monumental works meant to withstand time or succumb to its passage. Reflect on your own relationship to the land with a post-apocalyptic tale that might dig up more than you expect.

Artists featured in this episode: Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Walter de Maria

Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material, from SFMOMA.

Art brings us together. In this episode, members of Bay Area art collectives discuss what it means to make work for, by and with their communities. They reflect on the power of art to heal, inspire, and break down systems of oppression.

Artists featured in this episode: 100 Days of Action, Club Chai, Russell E.L. Butler.

Photo: 100 Days of Action, by Ben Leon.